Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
100 years ago, Beverly Hills was a place one would escape to in the hot summet months from the bustle of Los Angeles with its busy traffic of carriages, carts and early automobiles.
The homes were acutally very modest inexpensive clapboard or stucco single story dwellings that at best boasted a living room with a nice tile decorated fireplace. There were no swimming pools, just a variety of trees, especially oaks, planted for shade.
In the past 50 years,, one by one, the elderly folk retired. Swimming pools appeared, electric refirigerators replaced ice deliveries and then something abrupt and startling happened.
This was not "Genrtrification" where rich educated urban folk displace inner city struggling ethnic minorities downtown Los Angeles. What happened in Beverly Hills was the transformation of appearance of simple construction to give the image of wealth and luxury.
Asher
The homes were acutally very modest inexpensive clapboard or stucco single story dwellings that at best boasted a living room with a nice tile decorated fireplace. There were no swimming pools, just a variety of trees, especially oaks, planted for shade.
In the past 50 years,, one by one, the elderly folk retired. Swimming pools appeared, electric refirigerators replaced ice deliveries and then something abrupt and startling happened.
This was not "Genrtrification" where rich educated urban folk displace inner city struggling ethnic minorities downtown Los Angeles. What happened in Beverly Hills was the transformation of appearance of simple construction to give the image of wealth and luxury.
Asher
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